1,430 research outputs found
Lateral manipulation of single adsorbates and substrate atoms with the scanning tunneling microscope
The stability and precision of modern scanning-tunneling-microscope (STM) systems allow positioning of the tip on a subnanometer scale. This advancement has stimulated diverse efforts on surface modifications in the nanometer and even atomic range, as recently reviewed by Avouris. The lateral movement of individual adatoms and molecules in a controlled manner on solid surfaces and the construction of structures on a nanoscale were first demonstrated by Eigler and collaborators at 4 K. The reason for operating the STM at low temperatures (apart from increased stability and sensitivity of the STM setup itself) is the necessity to freeze the motion of single adsorbates, which are very often mobile at ambient temperatures. By selecting strongly bonded adsorbate/substrate combinations and large molecules, it was possible to extend the lateral manipulation technique even to room temperature. In the case of large molecules, not only their translational motion but also internal flexure of the molecule during the positioning process must be considered. In general, different physical and chemical interaction mechanisms between tip and sample can be exploited for atomic-scale manipulation. We will concentrate in the following on lateral manipulation where solely the forces that act on the adsorbate because of the proximity of the tip are used. This means that long-range van der Waals and short-range chemical forces can be used to move atoms or molecules along the surface. No bias voltage or tunneling current is necessary. Apart from this technique, additional advances using the effects caused by the electric field generated by the bias voltage between tip and sample and by the current flowing through the gap region can be used for atomic or molecular modification
Electron induced ortho-meta isomerization of single molecules
FWN – Publicaties zonder aanstelling Universiteit Leide
Shear viscosity of the Quark-Gluon Plasma from a virial expansion
We calculate the shear viscosity in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) phase
within a virial expansion approach with particular interest in the ratio of
to the entropy density , i.e. . The virial expansion approach
allows us to include the interactions between the partons in the deconfined
phase and to evaluate the corrections to a single-particle partition function.
In the latter approach we start with an effective interaction with parameters
fixed to reproduce thermodynamical quantities of QCD such as energy and/or
entropy density. We also directly extract the effective coupling \ga_{\rm V}
for the determination of . Our numerical results give a ratio
at the critical temperature , which is very
close to the theoretical bound of . Furthermore, for temperatures
the ratio is in the range of the present
experimental estimates at RHIC. When combining our results for
in the deconfined phase with those from chiral perturbation theory or
the resonance gas model in the confined phase we observe a pronounced minimum
of close to the critical temperature .Comment: Published in Eur. Phys. J. C, 7 pages, 2 figures, 3 tabl
Interatomic potentials for atomistic simulations of the Ti-Al system
Semi-empirical interatomic potentials have been developed for Al, alpha-Ti,
and gamma-TiAl within the embedded atomic method (EAM) by fitting to a large
database of experimental as well as ab-initio data. The ab-initio calculations
were performed by the linear augmented plane wave (LAPW) method within the
density functional theory to obtain the equations of state for a number of
crystal structures of the Ti-Al system. Some of the calculated LAPW energies
were used for fitting the potentials while others for examining their quality.
The potentials correctly predict the equilibrium crystal structures of the
phases and accurately reproduce their basic lattice properties. The potentials
are applied to calculate the energies of point defects, surfaces, planar faults
in the equilibrium structures. Unlike earlier EAM potentials for the Ti-Al
system, the proposed potentials provide reasonable description of the lattice
thermal expansion, demonstrating their usefulness in the molecular dynamics or
Monte Carlo studies at high temperatures. The energy along the tetragonal
deformation path (Bain transformation) in gamma-TiAl calculated with the EAM
potential is in a fairly good agreement with LAPW calculations. Equilibrium
point defect concentrations in gamma-TiAl are studied using the EAM potential.
It is found that antisite defects strongly dominate over vacancies at all
compositions around stoichiometry, indicating that gamm-TiAl is an antisite
disorder compound in agreement with experimental data.Comment: 46 pages, 6 figures (Physical Review B, in press
Forward K+ production in subthreshold pA collisions at 1.0 GeV
K+ meson production in pA (A = C, Cu, Au) collisions has been studied using
the ANKE spectrometer at an internal target position of the COSY-Juelich
accelerator. The complete momentum spectrum of kaons emitted at forward angles,
theta < 12 degrees, has been measured for a beam energy of T(p)=1.0 GeV, far
below the free NN threshold of 1.58 GeV. The spectrum does not follow a thermal
distribution at low kaon momenta and the larger momenta reflect a high degree
of collectivity in the target nucleus.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
The RNA chaperone Hfq is essential for the virulence of Salmonella typhimurium
The RNA chaperone, Hfq, plays a diverse role in bacterial physiology beyond its original role as a host factor required for replication of Qβ RNA bacteriophage. In this study, we show that Hfq is involved in the expression and secretion of virulence factors in the facultative intracellular pathogen, Salmonella typhimurium. A Salmonella hfq deletion strain is highly attenuated in mice after both oral and intraperitoneal infection, and shows a severe defect in invasion of epithelial cells and a growth defect in both epithelial cells and macrophages in vitro. Surprisingly, we find that these phenotypes are largely independent of the previously reported requirement of Hfq for expression of the stationary phase sigma factor, RpoS. Our results implicate Hfq as a key regulator of multiple aspects of virulence including regulation of motility and outer membrane protein (OmpD) expression in addition to invasion and intracellular growth. These pleiotropic effects are suggested to involve a network of regulatory small non-coding RNAs, placing Hfq at the centre of post-transcriptional regulation of virulence gene expression in Salmonella. In addition, the hfq mutation appears to cause a chronic activation of the RpoE-mediated envelope stress response which is likely due to a misregulation of membrane protein expression
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